Saudi woman drives bus disguised as man

Manama: A Saudi woman has said she had to disguise herself as a man to be able to drive a bus and help her needy family.

Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, even though there is no legal text to support the ban.

However, Saliha who lives with her parents and four sisters in a remote area in the south west of the Saudi kingdom, said she volunteered to take up the job to assist her old father, reports Gulf News.

Saliha said when conditions were very difficult at home, her father decided to launch a bus service to drive female students to their schools. However, Saliha, who was concerned about his poor health condition, requested him to allow her to replace him.

It took some time before her father was convinced that Saliha could drive the bus instead of him.

Saliha put on a man's clothes, hid her facial features and sat behind the steering wheel. For some time, nobody spotted the ruse. However, one day the henna designs on her hands were spotted by some young men, following which some elders from the village came to see her father. Much to their relief, the elders were delighted with the fact that Saliha could drive their daughters to school.

Saliha then reverted to her woman's clothes and that she was earning SR 4,000 a month for her job.